SEMINARY MISSES OUT ON MONEY

A plan to use federal transportation funds to buy St. Vincent's Seminary was nixed by the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission.

Commissioners decided Tuesday which Missouri projects would receive federal Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act money, which is allocated for transportation enhancement.

In February Cape Girardeau applied for $440,000, the entire amount for highways department District 10 projects. That amount, plus a 20 percent city match, would have paid the balance for the seminary buildings plus 16 acres.

The city justified the request for the grant because the seminary property will be next to Highway 74 when it is relocated.

Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation is in a lease-purchase agreement for the property with the Vincentian Fathers in St. Louis.

Highways department officials said from the beginning that it was unlikely a single project would get all the money. Cape Girardeau's request didn't even make it past a screening process for consideration by the commission.

Department planning engineer John Miller said a selection committee appointed by the commission evaluated the project. The multi-agency group found it less important than others in the state.

The District 10 money will go to a bridge project in Bollinger County and a pedestrian walkway in Piedmont. Another $100,000 was lost and went to projects elsewhere in the state.

A list of all approved projects will be available "very soon," Miller said. Missouri received a total of $6 million in ISTEA funds.

District 10 engineer Jim Murray said Cape Girardeau officials shouldn't abandon the idea of receiving the funds.

"The only thing I would recommend to applicants is looking at revising their proposal to make it more competitive," he said. "We will certainly work with them to do that."

Tuesday's news was disappointing to Cape Girardeau City Councilman Tom Neumeyer, who was one of the first to push the idea of applying for federal money.

"I would hope that this is just a temporary setback in the whole process," he said. "There are some very dedicated people working on this project, trying to preserve over 150 years of Cape Girardeau's heritage.

"We can't let it go with this."

Calls to members of the Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation went unreturned or unanswered Tuesday night.